Rutigliano offers opinion to HOF Luncheon Club on Browns coach search

Monday's speaker at the Hall of Fame Luncheon Club played college football with Jimmy Haslam II, piloted the Browns for seven seasons, and gave strong opinions of how Cleveland should replace Rob Chudzinski and proceed at quarterback.

He was a Cleveland Browns head coach longer than anyone except Paul Brown and Blanton Collier.

He was Jimmy Haslam II's teammate at the University of Tennessee.

He has kept both eyes on the Browns for decades, having chosen long ago to live out his life in Cleveland's east suburbs.

No one sees the current head coach opening quite like Sam Rutigliano. When he shared his views Monday after delivering a speech to the Hall of Fame Luncheon Club, his eyes flashed. His body language was passionate.

"With all due respect," Rutigliano said at Tozzi's on 12th, "it's time for a Gruden, a Cowher, or a Stoops."

That doesn't appear where the search to replace Rob Chudzinski is headed.

While Rutigliano was addressing the Luncheon Club, young Josh McDaniels was in New England confirming that the Browns interviewed him over the weekend. Adam Gase, even younger, was the hot candidate on talk radio. Auburn's Gus Malzahn and Vanderbilt's James Franklin are in the middle of the public radar.

Rutigliano's radar flashes with bigger craft.

Rutigliano and Haslam were fellow Tennessee Volunteer football players in 1951 and '52. Haslam's son, Jimmy III, is the owner of the Browns in title.

"They're good men," said Rutigliano, who hopes they will consider what he is certain is good advice: Beat the odds. If you haven't already, chase Jon Gruden, Bill Cowher or Bob Stoops. Arrange a personal meeting, one on one. Offer the moon.

"The only way to get an experienced coach," Rutigliano said, "is to get the owner to go to him, sit him down in a telephone booth, tell him what kind of money he's going to make, and what kind of guarantees he'll have."

Rutigliano knows Cowher well enough. They were together in Cleveland as coach and player from 1980-82. Rutigliano has studied Gruden, who began his coaching career at Tennessee, and Stoops, the 53-year-old head coach at Oklahoma who stunned Nick Saban's Alabama team last week.

He believes their abilities and credibility are what the Browns need to rise from the abyss. He has even thought about how he would go at them if he were in Haslam's shoes.

"What you tell them is, 'Look, I made a mistake when I hired Rob Chudzinski, because he didn't have the kind of experience needed,'" Rutigliano said. "I would talk about the kind of franchise the Browns are, and point to 73,000 being there for the opener against Miami even after all of the losing seasons.

"I would talk about the five guys who are going to the Pro Bowl, the seven picks in the first four rounds of the next draft, including the No. 4 overall pick and the Colts' first-rounder.

"I would point out the Colts were 2-14 in 2011 and the Chiefs were 2-14 in 2012, and both of them made the playoffs the next year.

Page 2 of 2 - "I would stress, 'We've got a chance to do an Indianapolis Colts or a Kansas City Chiefs. I would say I wanted to make a change and I wanted it to be the right change.

"Then I would say, 'I want to pay you this.' I would put the money on the table."

Rutigliano understands that one of the Pro Bowlers, Alex Mack, and another top player, T.J. Ward, can become free agents. He believes Haslam delivering the right "name" coach would help the Browns keep their own free agents and attract good players from other teams.

"Look at the moves the Indians were able to make after they signed Terry Francona," Rutigliano said.

Rutigliano is best known as the head coach of the 1980 "Kardiac Kids." He had the Browns in the playoffs in the strike-shortened 1982 season and led them to a 9-7 record in 1983, at which point he signed a five-year contract extension.

His 1984 Browns were 1-7 when Art Modell fired him. He used the contract payoff to "decide where I wanted to live the rest of my life." He loved Cleveland and settled in the area.

How he paid for a comfortable life was part of his point about using big money and guarantees to land a "name" coach. The offer must make it worth a Cowher's while.

Rutigliano talked about the obvious, that the next coach needs a good quarterback. He favors keeping Brian Hoyer, spending a high pick on a quarterback, and cutting ties with Brandon Weeden and Jason Campbell.

"After Hoyer, I would go with two new guys," he said. "Both other quarterbacks (Weeden, Campbell) proved they can't do it."